My birthday spent in Łódź!

Hi guys,

I hope everyone is doing so well that can easily manage to read completely my next story! Heh, I think this one won't be sooo long but enough funny and interesting.

Yesterday, I celebrated a Birthday for 24th time in my life. The fun started from the morning in the best possible way. On the way to the company, I was kissed twice from my great friend and colleage - the Romanian girl Ariana! She said that in her country they kiss 2 times on the cheecks compared to the Polish 1-time kissing tradition. Wow, I will begin to like Romania even more since then! :) Greets to Anamaria Androne - my sweet mentee ;P

During the working time almost half of it I spent in answering birthday wishes on Skype! It was really amazing to see how many people would like to greet me and to realize how good is the program function - Birthday alarm! :)) The day was generally also successful coz I sent again some offers and established good contacts with potential Magam's clients from Bulgaria. Only my satelite phone-call connection wasn't working properly but this was not a big deal for my good mood :)

After work I got home and started the preparation for the evening event - a party in 1 of my favourite pubs here - Biblioteka. It was sooo kind and nice that the EB had organized everything in advance booking the place and inviting as much guests as possible! The party started at 19:00 but I arrived with the 2 chinese interns almost 1 hour later. Guess why! Changes in the tram lines, again! The schedule wasn't regular so we spent a lot of time waiting for the transportation. At my arrival at the place there weren't many people but afterwards the number of the party "delegates" increased and reached 13! Lucky guy, am I?! ;))) All the interns, some recent friends and AIESECars from different generations - this was the profile of my guests.

The atmosphere was very nice and cosy as everyone was drinking, talking and laughing alot about different stories. Then the special time came - my present was brought and given to me - a bottle of traditional Polish wodka (made of fruits probably, but I will tell ya for sure if some of you is interested). Of course, I decided to share it with my friends, but during the next party, which I plan to be a Bulgarian night - presenting my culture!

After the gift-giving, first all of the party attenders started to sing for me "100 lat" - the Polish Birth-/Nameday song! Then I heard consecutively the Chinese and 2 Romanian versions of the famous "Happy Birthday"! It was amazing, really touchy!!! Afterwards everyone asked me to sing the Bulgarian version of the birthday song and I suddenly realized, that there is no such one with BG lyrics! Hey, we have to think about changing this! ;) After the singing part I released my 2 boxes with chocolate bonbons and the fun continued....

Here comes the photo part of my story! Enjoy yourselves watching:

Me and Tomek - one of the best party guides I've ever met! :)

Monika, Maciej, Krzysztof, Marzena - AIESEC guys from Łódź.

Me, Tomek and the beautiful Maja Mozer :)

Monica and Winie (China), Ariana and Ana (Romania).

The photos was brought to us by the nice and sweet Ana Petrescu (Romania).

On my way home after the party again I realize how magical and great is AIESEC as a community/familly of amazing people. I was walking and listening how a Polish girl (Maja) was explaining to 2 Chinese girls the emotional relationship between the Bulgarians and Macedonians! She spent 1 year in the Macedionian MC so she had enough impressions about the country and the Balkan mentality. AIESEC - connecting people! :)))

That's all from me for now, folks. See ya in the next posting and wish ya nice days!

Keep in touch!

Victor Tomov

New friendships with AIESEC interns

Since I'm here in Łódź, I haven't met sooo many people from AIESEC. I'm quite happy that I got to know with interns from Romania - 2 girls + 1 boy, and China - 1 boy and 2 girls. It's a bit funny that I'm probably the first Bulgarian intern especially in LC Łódź so my role is very important - to show the culture and to shake the worldview of the locals demostrating how close are our languages :)

When I arrived in Poland there were in my LC around 3 interns:
- a boy from China who is popular rock singer in the Mainland of the coutry;
- a sweet Chineese girl who adores gofrys (gofretti) and has the strangest English accent I've ever experienced;
- a Romanian girl from Bucuresti;

The next day my colleage in Magam arrived in the train station - the second girl from Romania with the "beer-branded" name Ariana! I went to pick her up and then to accompany her to the flat. I realized how lucky she is, finally then! She should live in the central street in a flat with the other Romanian intern and the VPX! What else can a person need ;)

Few days after, our double-welcome party was done in a quite small, cosy and relaxing atmosphere when I met also some friends with Polish origin with whom we still hang out during our weekends. All the time when we are together partying I realize how much can a Polish person drink, even a high alcoholic stuff. One of my friends said once that he is not a strong drinker regarding the Polish standards, coooz he could fall down "only" from 500 ml of wodka! Wow, bring me the Russians, please! :))) Here everyone says that the Polish people are average drinkers far away from Ukrainians and Russians. Could be, could be! ;) Btw, the tosts are very popular while drinking with friends.

After my release from the hospital having already grown beard I met the second Chineese intern here - a Cantoneese girl. I immediately informed her about my usual look in order not to scary her from the beggining, hehehe :) Later on, we had the chance to travel accross Łódź exploring the different tram and bus lines, mainly to her company and back. I felt so good taking care of her and being somehow "second AIESEC budy".

Regarding the communication breakdowns I had here, for sure the funniest ever are the ones with the other Chineese girl. All the time when we speak she needs I to clarify or repeat what I have said and then say it on her own way to prove she's got it! After "hundreds" of attempts I'm on my way to give up teaching her the Polish pronounciation. It seems quite impossible! :) But, I think she's not a regular example coz the other interns from this part of the world speak good. It depends of the region, probably, but it's still sweet to listen to her :)) I'm lovin' it!

The third Romanian intern I got to know is a boy coming from LC Galati. He's great guy and after 2 weeks stay in Poland he is back to Romania and Bulgaria for 3 weeks for a business trip with his manager! Of course, I prepared for him a long list of foods to try that are traditional for Bulgaria. I hope he will like boza but we'll see later ;)

Finally, on the last party I met one guy that has a lot of friends who formed a football team - amateur one. They will call me for their games every weekend from now on. So, I'll have the chance not to forget what's to be a goal-keeper ;) It's a surprise for me that here most of the boys I got to know are not interested in football or even volleyball. But I'm happy that I met some exceptions ;)))

I hope that I'll meet the other Bulgarian interns in Poland - Titi from my LC who is in Olsztyn, and Mimka - from AIESEC Plovdiv, who is in Krakow. And I won't forget about Mimi - our lovely LC member that will stay for 1 year Erasmus study in Warszawa. Around my trips accross Poland I expect to meet a lot of new interesting people and make some strong friendships as well :)

Victor Tomov

Some photos from my internship in Łódź

Mmmm, GOFRY! :))

D'you wanna visit Bulgaria?! ;))

Me as a ghost! ;) Spooky ;P

Whata nice fountain :) Close to my dorm in the garden of the Managament Faculty, University of Łódź

Believe it or not - the Library of Łódź University!

With some of my AIESEC friends in the Silver Screen Cinema Center, Łódź

Typical urban style silhouette in Łódź - church, traffic lights and trees together :)

The modern Łódź

Beautiful but ghost ;)

It's good to have balls but for a girl?! ;)))

Welcome to Poland!

The one and only - Manufaktura!

The shitty floor in my shitty room!

The shitty dirty wall aside to my bed!

Me in the Magam's office :)

On the stairway to the Lublin's Castle

Łódź - actually it means a boat! This is the symbol of the city :)

That's how I looked after 3 and-a-half weeks without shaving because of the varicella!

Photos: Victor Tomov

Party stuff with AIESEC Łódź. Polish and International cuisine.

Hellooo, my dears!

After 2 not sooo much positive stories, this one will be related totally to the funny life in Łódź :)

All of you probably already had read in one of my previous updates in the Varna Community about the reception party I had few days after my arrival in Poland. It was a small one - around 8 people, full of fun and drinks - the Romanian "t,uica" ("tsuyka" in BG, soorry not to spell it correctly in Romanian but I don't have the special letters in my computer here) - something like the Bulgarian slivovica; and of course - rakia :)) After this party I had the chance to visit the following party places:

- Port West - the worst club ever for me! The music was a mix of techno, electronic, non-commercial house end something else probably. But the problem was that it was veeery monotonic so I got bored quickly and left it earlier than the others.
- Fabryka - famous as the oldest bar for young people in the city but for me it wasn't anything special and interesting - very small and smoky hall that I experienced only for few minutes while planning where to be the next stop for drinking :)
- Biblioteka - this is one of the most popular bar "to drink beer and watch some football game" for the young people, mostly students in Łódź! The atmosphere inside is cosy and nice and I like the place very much. There I attended an welcome party of 2 EPs that came back from internship in Romania. They are a couple and the girl is only 2 days younger than me. I think to combine our birthday parties but we'll see next week. This bar has a garden house located on Piotrkowska street as well.
- Piotrkowska street - the longest commercial street in Europe - with around 100 bars on it! Actually, almost all the interesting places for enjoying are situated somewhere around or on this street - the main one in Łódź. At almost each 50-100 m there is a statue of a famous Polish person - writer, compositor, musician. There is a walk of fame with golden stars as well. In the summer all the pubs and bars have gardens outside were I drank a lot of times beer with friends.
- Cotton club - billiard & beer club where everyone meets to watch mainly football games! It is something like the Varna club - The three Lions. The interior is related to footbal clubs, there are TV screens and 3-4 billiard tables. It is one of the most popular Karaoke bars in Łódź as well. But there is only one night for singing and it will start in October. Here there aren't specialized Karaoke bars like in Varna. There are only Karaoke parties in some of the clubs. I'm impatient to visit one of them to show my singing skills developed under the label "Shower Records" :))) If you know what I mean ;)
- Łódź Kaliska - expensive pub where you can see erotic or a bit pornographic materials everywhere on the walls. It has the name of the biggest railway station in the city so the floor and the tables are similar to the ones in the trains but of course with higher quality and purity ;) There is a separate floor for dancing but the music and the mood was not the best I've ever seen so I didn't try it. This bar is also famous with it's toilets, again decorated with some a bit disgusting sexual pictures. It's usual to go there just to "pee for free" :) and then continue to some other place with less expensive drinks. I did it with my friends twice ;P
- Piano Cafe - 2 small rooms bar - one for sitting, talking and drinking and one for dancing. The interior is similar to the one in the ex-Budha Bar (then transformed to Potato House) in Varna stone-walls, wooden benches, chairs and tables. The DJ there was dressed as a mixture of styles but I enjoyed very much his work so I spent great time finally dancing on a nice music! I went there with the biggest bunch of people (since I'm here) for finishing the bye-bye party of one EP who will go to Belgium for internship.
- Peron 6 - the House of the Beer! This is probably the best pub I've ever visited during my stay in Łódź! It is famous with the wiiide range of international beers offered in the menu. It is something like combination between ALBA & PENCH's but of course with less than 1000 beers, hehehehe ;P The Balkans beer brands weren't presented but for sure I will visit it often to try some unique ones - white, from cherry, from honey etc. :) Inside is cosy and not smoky which is good for a no-smoker like me. Usually, the beer is almost all the time around me as my Romanian colleage-intern is named Ariana ;) She works at a bit more than "1 hand distance" from my desk :P

These were the most interesting bars&places for enjoy I've visited. Of course there are more that I cannot remember now or weren't so special. Here there is a plenty of so called "gates" where you can enter and look for pub or disco to enjoy during the night. There is an entrance fee only for boys - 10 zl (5 lv) and if the place is not worthy I don't feel good after spending these money. The prices are a bit higher than in Bulgaria but it depends on the bars as well.

In the end of this story I will tell you about the cooking AIESEC party I had 1 week after going out of the hospital. It was really amazing and the best one for the past 6 weeks since I'm in Łódź! I met a lot of new people and AIESECars older then me!!! One of the girls was a very close friend to Kamila Antczak so I fanally got her contact details and we re-established our connection afterwards! There was one Alumni from the 1998 generation! I had the chance to try dishes from China (tomatoes with fried eggs), Poland (2 traditional soups and "sarmi" from cabagge but not sour like the BG ones) and Romania (meat with of course - mamaliga! and sweet panned and fried balls filled with plums or curds)! Very, veryyy delicous night! :))) I cannot see and find here sheets of pastry so probably I coudn't make banitsa for the friends to try. After the eating part and the leaving of 5-6 people we bought 1 bottle of Żubrówka - the famous Polish wodka for playning bitches-bitches! GREAT! I was sooo happy that finally I would play my favorite drinking game again. I was missing it all the time since I left Bulgaria. Here they have some good players but mostly the Polish guys drank ;))) And here there are not so attractive players like our great Ico Parvanov! The party was in the flat of the VPER and I'm a bit proud of myslelf that I almost find it and reached it leading one of the chineese girls. Well, I missed the right tram stop to get off but it was again my usual bad luck ;)))

Tonight (Monday) another party is on the road - bye-bye for a chineese intern and welcome for 2 girls coming from CEED and stay abroad. I think in Varna we can learn a lot from LC Łódź regarding the preparation of packages for this kind of parties. Every intern or EP receives a bag full of gifts :))) So, the fun is going on around me these days!

In the weekend I plan to visit Krakow finally along with the 4 other interns here. It will be great fun and I will meet with Mimi (Trupchinkata) from AIESEC Plovdiv, who is now on an internship there. I'm happy that I will have a person to speak in Bulgarian as everyone here in Łódź has another person from his country, except of me :) Whata surprise regarding my luck! ;)))

That's all from me for now, folks!

See ya soon in the next material and I'm waiting for your comments regarding the topics. Of course you can write me e-mails as well.

Btw, from this web site - sms.orange.pl you can send me free smses, for example for my Birthday which is on 24th of September ;) To do so follow my instructions coz the site is in Polish:

- "Nadawca" (sender) you write your name;
- "Odbiorca" (Recipient) you right my number - 798504338;
- in the field "Twoja wiadomość" - your text message;
- a bit down - "Potwierdzenie" where you can see some symbols (usually letters), you must type them in the text box aside to the button "Wyślij". Then you click this button and the message is sent :)

This is the entire process :))

Greetings from sunny (finally again!) Łódź ! :))) Take care and keep in touch!

Victor Tomov

The conditions of my new room in a Dormitory for international students in Łódź.

After I got out from the hospital I was informed that because of my disease I couldn't stay in the same dormitory (V Dorm) for the next month and few days. So, the AIESECar responsible for me had to arrange my movement to the International students' dormitory of the University of Łódź. The behaviour of the manager of V Dorm was a bit funny and panic, because in the moment of my come back I was at least 10 times less dangerous to infect than during the 3 days I spent in there before the hospitalization :)

Anyway, I packed aaaaalll my stuff (again the huge luggage!) and I was lucky (somehow finally!) that there was a car waiting for me to take it to the next location - thanks to one girl from the EB. On my way back from the hospital I also did some shopping and we moved everything to my new room. It was double one but separated (weell - isolated is the more appropriate word) especially for me. When I saw it I was completely shocked! The floor was with some kind of very dirty spotted brocken terracotta, there was dust everywhere, the walls were at some places blacky dirty from their original yellow colour and finally - the worst thing - FULL of BUGS - small and medium size ones everywhere dead or smashed at the walls!!! In every wardrobe or cupboard there was plenty of them :( At this point the room in the previous dorm, which I had some complaints about, seemed to me as Paradise...

After checkin' in and discussing with the staff some "impossible" ways of changing the room, I went to the AIESEC office to use Internet and so on 'till the night when I had alone to cope with the conditions in my room - killing bugs, trying to put somewhere the clothes, to clean with water the shelves etc. While I was trying to fall asleep looking around panically in the darkness whether some bug approached my bed, I received sms from my budy here that "due to some reasons" he cannot take care of me anymore and another person will be responsible for me. Whata nice situation....

In the next morning I asked downstairs for some detergents and cleaning stuff and I experienced the "hospitality" of the dormitory. The people said that I have to buy everything, even the cleaning tools - steer, basket for the water etc. because they "don't have such" and cannot provide me with them. Hm, I went to Carre-four then and bought everything necessary to clean this fuckin' shitty room. It took me 2 days to do it and to make it not shiny but normal to stay in. To make it normal to live in, I had to find a solution about the bugs. After asking several AIESECars, and trying some gear, I fanally choosed - RAID - a new triple formula! :) Another 2 days I spent in spraying all around the room and finally I calmed down. All the nests of the bugs and their roads were cleaned so I had to wait for the result of the operation. Fortunately, it was mission possible! :)

Meanwhile, I had problems with my fridge which was leaking with some oil that durtied my food, especially the yogurts I bought. This problem was solved by the dormitory management in 1 day so it was quite ok :) Now I have a new fridge that keeps also the food of my neighbours - 2 chineese girls - AIESEC interns.

Nowadays, my room is rearranged, emptied from some unusefull wardrobes, clean and normal to live in. Its only one advantage is that I have own bathroom and I don't need to share it with the entire floor. And about the bugs, well, they are still around but with less amount - only 1 or 2 I see (and of course kill) for the whole day. Actually, they enter from outside, coz there is a gap of 1,5 cm between the edge of my door and the floor. This is the only one thing I don't think I can prevent and repair. But looking back at all I had to cope with, that is not a big deal :) The whole cleaning costed me around 65 zl. unexpected and unplanned expenses. With this amount of money I can have good lunch meals in a Vietnamic bar for a week!

Can you imagine, that the prices in this dormitory which is 15-years old and not repaired since foundation are higher than in the previous one which is 5-years renovated one!? Some Polish mistery, I guess ;)

As all you may realize, I won't have only toilet stories anymore, but room ones as well ;) :P And again useful experience.

The next topic in my daily life is the washing of my clothes. Different from the V Dorm when the Laundry service is for free and running 12 h per day, in the one for International students it runs in September only 3 hours (15:00-18:00) during 3 working (!!!) days - from Tuesday until Thursday and there is a fee - 7 zl. per washing! This is freaky! I think I won't give money to this dorm except of my accomodation fee which is 280 zl. (140 lv!!!) and I cannot manage to use the Laundry coz I usually come back from work at around 17 and I neeed an hour to wash one group of clothes. Since I've learned how to wash my underwear this is the first time when I practice it in such conditions :)

I wait to move to another dormitory at the end of September as I was informed that I cannot stay longer in this one. I hope the next room will be better or like my first one at least. But we are lucky that IU-Varna doesn't cooperate with the Uni of Łódź in Erasmus, coz the students from the program are always accomodated in the shitty dorm :)

That's all for this story, folks ;)

See ya in the next posting,

Victor Tomov

My 1 week stay in a dermatological hospital in Łódź

Hello my dear friends,

As all of you already know about my great experience and masterhsip in being "karuk" (bad luck person), probably you won't be surprised with the news that somehow (and I still don't now where and when!) I got a chicken-pox on my 3rd week here in Łódź. Unfortunately I passed another small type of this rash disease and I caught the other one finally - varicella! It seemed at the beginning just a flu (but not a rockin' one as in the Aerosmith song) with high temperature.

After 3 days vomitting and strong fight I saw some unexpected rashes on my body and became very very afraid about my health. Then it was good luck that the AIESEC EB here found one guy to drive me in the nearest hospital. First the the doctor thought I had some alergy and sent me to another hospital - with toxicological and dermatological sectors. There for the doctors was obvious - I had varicella, a typical one! Actulally, this was the hardest time for my AIESEC friend coz he hadn't passed it at childhood. So he became afraid about his health as well and we were informed that this disease shows its symptoms after 2 weeks of preliminary periode. Thus, all the persons I had met the last 3 days only had to wait to see what will happen with them if they hadn't passed varicella.

Anyway, with temperature of 39,3 degrees I was immediately hospitalized for 1 week at least. I became some kind of huge attraction for the entire hospital staff since my first day there! I was the only one Bulgarian (foreign) patient and I was the first case within the past 10 years of a person at this age (23) that has caught varicella :) Wow, whata star we're having here!!! ;)

My stay in the hospital was a combination of funny, tough and interesting moments. At one point, only the doctor responsible for me spoke English so I had the chance to practice, learn and improve my Polish language. And I did it with completely new lexic! :) Since my second day in the room along with 2 more persons I started my sociological observations on the different types of behaviour of the people in the hospital - the patients, the staff and the visitors. Heh, some of them were really funny and nice at the same time. Everyone was polite with me as well :)

For the first time in my stay in Poland I had a TV in my room. To use it everyone had to pay but one of the roommates did it several times so I watched Formula 1 and a game between Tottenham (with Berbatov missing the score few times) and Manchester United :)) Cool, yeah!

At another point, I had the chance finally to experience the Polish traditional cuisine coz everytime there were something different served for lunch. I even tried the Polish szynka (ham) which I cannot afford to buy from the supermarkets coz it's a bit expensive. For sure my stay in the hospital was full of positive moments and added another chapter of my personal experience. The AIESEC EB members were very helpful as well bringing me clothes and some cosmetics, driving me with their cars as well.

The most obvious result of my illness which can be seen even nowadays is my grown beard. I haven't shaved myself for already 2 and-a-hafl weeks and for around 1 week more I won't do it so I expect to have a look like Hristo Botev :) Now I look like BG terrorist and all the time when I enter the dormitory the guards check me (probably searching for bombs, weapons or so). All the time I meet someone new, especially a girl, I mention that this isn't my regular view :))

A good thing that came from the fact that I hadn't eaten anything for 5 days is the weight loss. Now I feel good and in my normal shape which I aimed since 2 months :))))

Unfortunately, coming back to work I learn that I infected one of my colleages from the company when I came the morning before the hospitalization to the office. It's a pitty and good for her at the same time, coz later you got varicella, worse your condition will be. So, she caught it at middle age which is acceptable but still bad.


That's all about my hospital experience in Łódź. See ya in the next story from my internship :)

Thank you for the attention!

With kind regards,

Victor Tomov